By popular request, here it is, for what it is.

For the first time, the Internet failed me in providing information on the Ford Model A engine. I searched for hours looking for decent 3 views to work from, and failed. Information was very sketchy. I bought a 1/25th scale model with an engine, scanned the engine parts into the computer, then into Autocad, traced and scaled up. The model boat man at a local hobby shop has a Model A, and was kind enough to let me photograph the engine. With that, I had a start.

I made a styrene box the size of the top of the engine and poured it full of rock hard water putty. I drilled the holes for the head bolt and spark plug bosses, added the water pump housing and channel, then shaped the whole top end. I glued styrene rod and tube into the holes, then cut the top end in half. Since both the top and part of the bottom surface were rounded, it could not vacuum formed in one pull. The pieces turned out well. When I glued them together, I left a slight seperation between the two to allow for the "head gasket".

I did the same for the square parts of the bottom half of the engine. I used oven bake clay to form a rod the diameter of the exposed cylinders, cut the rod in half, and to length, and glued the halves to the square part of the bottom. I used oven bake clay to form the timing gear cover, and glued it in place on the rock hard putty shape. The vacuum form turned out better than I had hoped for, and assembly proceeded.

The valve cover was done in the same fashion as the head; a mold out of rock hard putty, and vacuum formed.

The intake manifold, carburetor, water inlet and outlet, were again oven bake clay. The exhaust, oil filler tube, and water pump shaft are aluminum tube. Zap A Dap A Goo provided support in the case for the oil filler tube. All else is CA.

Neither the clay, nor the rock hard putty machined well, so I made a 1/2 x 1/2 x 1 1/2 inch billet of Alumalite for the water pump shaft and pulley support. It is great stuff. It drills saws, sands very well; it is light, and quite strong. I will definitly use it again. I used my Dremel tool, and hand shaped it to "that looks about right".

All of the flanges and flat stuff are sheet styrene.

I took a real sparkplug, drew it in Autocad; scaled it down to 1/6th, and dimensioned it. It turned out that a standard 0-80 nut was the right size, and an 0-80 scale washer toped off the nut to provide the flange for the upper insulator. The whole thing is assembled on a 0-80 by 5/8 screw. Styrene tubing for the bottom, then paint; then styrene tubing for the insulator.

All up weight is 1 oz. Probably not suited for internal cumbustion engine planes, but it will work just fine for my electric.

Les